


Caught Forward (That's Our Mistake)

by gilligankane



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-04
Updated: 2012-12-04
Packaged: 2017-11-20 06:33:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,767
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/582341
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gilligankane/pseuds/gilligankane
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Red gives another heavy sigh and busies herself with folding a towel. “Regina, the curse broke,” she says, like Regina doesn’t know.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Caught Forward (That's Our Mistake)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [missanomalous](https://archiveofourown.org/users/missanomalous/gifts).



> I took many, many liberties. So, read at your own risk.

Regina isn’t sure how

– or _why_ , more importantly. Why is Red here? Why is she touching her? Why isn’t Regina following after Henry? The questions continue to come up and she cannot answer any of them –

but she finds herself in the passenger seat of a red muscle car, staring at a glass wolf figurine hanging from the mirror. The door slamming startles her a bit and Regina turns to find Red staring at her, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth.

“Come on,” Red finally says, starting the car. It revs loudly, the sound echoing through Regina’s body. “Granny has food ready and if we take too long, she’ll put it out for the dogs.”

Regina finds her voice, a scratchy, hoarse whisper of a thing. “Dinner with you and Granny?”

Red glances at her out of the corner of her eye. “Did you have other plans?”

Regina is minutely grateful when Red takes her silence for what it is and pulls away from the curb onto the deserted street.

*

Regina is mostly quiet through dinner, thanking Granny with a swift nod when she is handed a plate laden with mashed potatoes and meatloaf. She swallows the urge to ask for something green and picks at the parts of the food that aren’t covered in gravy. Red puts her head down and eats steadily, forkless-hand curved around her plate protectively. It reminds Regina of Henry, the night she made lasagna, a few months before Emma Swan was deposited on her doorstep and refused to leave. He claimed to be so hungry and took almost half of the pan and refused to let her have a bite off his plate. Regina remembered laughing the whole dinner and Henry, he never stopped smiling between bites.

After dinner, she silently picks up the dishes and plugs the sink, rolling up her sleeves on autopilot. Behind her, she hears a commotion but then Granny is pushed out of the kitchen and into the living room. Regina hears Jeopardy come on.

“I’ll dry,” Red offers, appearing at her elbow. She takes the first soapy plate with a smile, her fingers brushing against Regina’s soap-slick hand.

They wash and dry as quietly as they ate dinner, Regina content to lose herself in the repetitive motion: scrub, rinse, scrub, rinse, pass to Red. Regina knows how to calm herself. Some people drive. Some people have their places, like Henry’s castle. But Regina has always found solace in using her hands. In finding the order and the rhythm of washing and drying dishes or making to-do lists. Her hands are swift and steady and her motions are practiced enough that she can shut her mind off and just exist.

She doesn’t realize she’s gone through their small amount of dirty dishes until she reaches into the soapy water and Red’s hand stops her. “Got them all, I think,” Red says quietly. “Come on.” She pulls Regina’s hands out of the water and wraps them in a clean dishtowel, drying them carefully.

The shock of it stops her from immediately pulling her hands back but she does eventually, holding them against her chest as if Red’s touch burned her.

“Just _what_ do you think-”

Red sighs, cutting off Regina’s indignation. “Even at your worst, you would never let me-”

“Let you _what_ , Miss. Lucas?” Regina spits out. “Let you treat me like a small child?”

Red gives another heavy sigh and busies herself with folding a towel. “Regina, the curse broke,” she says, like Regina doesn’t know.

Like Regina doesn’t lay awake at night wondering how it all went wrong. Like Regina slides through the halls of her too-empty house, projecting memories onto the walls like movie screens. Like Regina doesn’t drive slowly through the streets looking for Henry until someone notices her.

“How astute of you to realize, Miss. Lucas. It’s nice to see that your heightened sense of smell has returned, along with your ability to point out the glaringly obvious.”

  
Red’s hand flexes dangerously and she lets out a sigh that sounds more like a wolf exhaling, huffing and puffing. Regina prepares herself to be knocked down, but Red turns slowly, reaching even slower for Regina’s hand again.

“The curse broke,” she repeats. “And I… I remember.”

Regina opens her mouth to voice a catty, biting reply that will make her feel better for probably less than she’d like but snaps her mouth closed instantly. Red nods in confirmation.

“So that’s why you came after me,” Regina says, her chest rattling hollowly. “But the curse broke…”

“I know. I just had to…” Red squeezes Regina’s hands unconsciously. “I had to deal with it all over again. I had to come to terms with it. With how we met and what I felt for you and what… what you did.” Her gentle hold on Regina tightens enough that Regina feels her body wince in pain. “You cursed us,” Red snaps. “You made me forget. You promised me, Regina, that I would remember. That we would be together no matter what happened.”

Regina doesn’t have a good enough excuse to give Red. Yes, she could come up with one. But Red would see through it easily and Regina is too tired, too weary, too heartbroken tonight to pretend.

“I cursed everyone, dear,” she says, her voice too high, too helpless for her liking.

They stare at each other, Regina memorizing the flecks of gold in Red’s eyes that she hasn’t seen in so long, and after a few moments, there is something cold and metal being pressed into her palm. Her first instinct is that it’s a knife and she’ll finally be gutted the way the people want. But when she looks down, she finds a set of keys, a rabbit’s foot dangling off the keyring.

“I was never ‘everyone’.” Red’s mouth turns down in a frown that makes Regina’s stomach lurch upon seeing. “Just… go home, Regina,” Red mutters. “I’ll stop by in the morning for my keys.”

There is an apology on the tip of Regina’s tongue, but she takes the easy route and accepts the out that Red gives her. She nods jerkily and slips through the TV-lit living room, ignoring Granny’s pointed glance that settles in between her shoulder blades.

She doesn’t look back to see if Red is watching her and there’s some small satisfaction in knowing that Red won’t expect her to.

*

In the morning, Regina wakes with a stale taste in her mouth and a key imprinted into the center of her palm. Her clothes still smell like magic, the scent lingering like smoke, heavy and hard to breathe around. She moves on autopilot: out of bed and into the shower, make coffee, dress for the day. She eats breakfast alone once she’s dressed, staring straight ahead out the window at her dying apply tree, steadfastly ignoring the empty seat next to her.

She’s midway through an internal debate on what to do next (go outside and see if she can salvage any part of her tree, or return Red’s atrocious car) when the doorbell rings furiously. Regina sighs heavily and crosses through the empty house, her heels sharp against the marble foyer, a hollow reminder of her loneliness.

Granny is pushing her way through the door as soon as Regina turns the knob.

“To what do I owe the displeasure,” Regina snaps, arms crossed over her chest.

The old woman looks around wildly. Regina takes in her hair, wisping around her temples, and the way that her hand rests on her opposite arm, an arm Regina knows to be mangled by Red’s past. She remembers something, something Red said, about Granny’s arm acting up in times of danger. Regina can remember seeing the older woman stalking the halls of a castle lost long ago, her hand pressed against her arm, shaking her head furiously.

“Did she come here?”

Regina straightens up, eyebrows furrowed. “Did who come where?”

“Red,” Granny stresses, all but rolling her eyes. “Did she come here?”

“No,” Regina says slowly, her confusion growing. “She said she might come by for her car, but… What is going on?”

Granny looks older than Regina remembers now, standing in her foyer with her glasses slipping down her nose. “I never liked you,” the old woman admits. “Not once, not ever. But Red… she was always too trusting for her own good. Too caring.”

“I never-”

Granny waves off her interruption. “She got that from her father, that heart. And I swear on her mother’s grave that if it got her in trouble, if her trust in you got her into trouble she can’t get out of…”

Regina stalks forward, her eyes flashing. She looks down and sees small sparks shooting out from the tips of her fingers, sizzling as they hit the air. “What are you talking about?”

“Gold,” Granny breathes out. “Gold has her. And he’s asking for you.”

*

Regina doesn’t wait for an invitation. She raises her hands and takes the door to the pawnshop off its hinges, startling Michael the Tin Man. The man jumps back as the door sails overhead, his mouth hanging open. Regina pays him no mind, stalking into Gold’s business, her eyes narrowed.

“Ah, yes, dearie. You’ve come. Of course, of course.”

Regina grabs for his throat. “Where is she?”

Around gasping for air, Gold manages, “I could ask the same question of you.”

Regina releases her hold, pushing Gold back into a glass shelf. It cracks a bit under the pressure but holds him up. Regina can already feel the magic sparking from her fingertips and her anger is raging in her throat. “I already gave her back,” she spits out.

Gold’s eye flash dangerously. “No, you didn’t. She is not _my_ Belle. She is someone else. I want _my_ Belle back.”

Regina closes the distance between them again quickly, her neck stretching as she leans in close. “She is the same foolish girl you tricked into loving you. And now that she’s back, she’s free to choose anyone she wants.” Regina smirks. “And to my amusement, it looks like she hasn’t chosen you.”

She’s not expecting the hard punch to the stomach. It knocks her to her knees, pushing her back towards the door. Still grinning, she grips her stomach and looks up, meeting Gold’s eye. “Poor Rumplestilskin. Everyone gets a happy ending except for him, again.”

Gold sneers. “You think you have a happy ending, dearie? A son who doesn’t love you, a stepdaughter you tried to kill, a father you murdered, and a wolf.” He takes an unsteady step forward, leaning heavily on his cane as she rises to her feet. “What happy ending is that?”

She can’t resist being petty. “It’s more of a happy ending than you’ll _ever_ have.”

Gold swings his cane back like he’s going to strike her down and yelps in pain instead when an arrow slices through the destruction, pinning him to a wooden cabinet behind him. Regina, eyes wide, spins quickly and comes face to face with Snow White, her merry band of dwarves bearing weapons behind her.

“She’s my friend,” Snow says simply, her eyes daring Regina to make an attempt to question her. “And if she’s hurt, I’ll put an arrow through you too.” When Regina doesn’t protest, Snow nods resolutely. “Grumpy, you and Sneezy stay here. If he moves, kill him.”

Grumpy grins widely. “You got it, sister,” he says, pushing past Regina without apology.

“Where is she?” Snow asks, directing the question to Regina.

Shakily, Regina stands, her world spinning before it rights itself again. “The woods,” she offers. “He’ll take her there. There’s a crypt there for-”

“Your father,” Snow finishes. She turns, already moving out of the shop. “I remember.”

Regina wonders how, if everyone suddenly remembers everything, why they keep asking the most inane questions.

*

Regina’s ears pick up on the low keening noise coming from the depths of the forest quickly. Snow’s head snaps in the direction half a second later and they take off into the woods together, crashing through trees and shrubs. Regina pulls to a stop and listens intently, taking off again, Snow at her heels.

“This way,” she calls over her shoulder.

Snow shakes her head. “It’s this way.”

Regina’s lips pull back in a snarl. “I know these woods. She’s _this_ way.”

Snow looks like she’s going to argue but after a tense moment, gives a brief nod and allows Regina to lead again.

In the middle of a clearing about a half a mile in, Regina stops so quickly that Snow has no time to do the same. The girl slams into her, knocking her forward. It spurs her into action, scrambling in the dead leaves and brush on her hands and knees to the base of the tree where Red is tied, suspended forward. Her head hangs limp and loose. Pushing a curtain of hair back, Regina tries to see what the damage is.

“Promised,” Red exhales brokenly. “You… Promised.”

“I know I did,” Regina says, her own voice breaking. Her hands press into Red’s cheeks and she can’t stop herself from pressing a kiss to the crown of the girl’s head. Red’s eye is swollen. There is a large gash across her forehead and a small trickle of dried blood leading from her earlobe down her neck. “I’m going to kill him,” she breathes out.

“Not if I kill him first,” Snow responds. Regina starts, completely forgetting that Snow had come with her. “Come on,” she says. “Let’s get her to Granny’s.”

Gently, Snow slides her hands under Red’s shoulder and together, they lift her up slowly, careful of the bruised ribs she’s sure to have. Red’s head lolls forward, coming to a rest on Regina’s shoulder.

“I’ll kill him,” she vows again.

She thinks she might even see Red smile at that.

*

Regina shifts uncomfortably in the chair she has commandeered at the foot of Red’s bed. It reminds her of the Other World, when Red was a silly girl with a crush that grew too fond of Regina for her own good. Regina would sit up at night, watching over Red asleep in her bed by the light of the fire and wonder what she had become.

Regina had been foolish then too. She had been caught in the flashes of light that she could see in Red’s eyes. She had been swept up in Red’s laughter and her innocence and done foolish things: spare guards that were disposable, move Granny to a hut just inside the palace walls, and when the time came, she promised Red they would remember each other after the curse, that they would find each other again.

But when the time came, Regina chose another path. She gave Red the advantage of Granny and told herself it was enough. She was foolish to have feelings for a girl like Red, who slept diagonally across a bed, who laughed when nothing funny had been said, who turned into a beast when the full moon came. She was foolish to have feelings for a girl like Red, who curled close in the night and nuzzled into Regina’s neck, whispering words Regina had no business hearing or returning.

Granny appears in the doorway, her hand resting on her arm again. Together, they watch the almost imperceptible rise and fall of Red’s chest.

“Before you cursed us all,” Granny starts, her voice rough and hollow. “I couldn’t get her to stop crying. She was going on and on about how you banished her. How you stabbed a hole in her heart and she wished it had been with a silver-tipped arrow. She was inconsolable. Worse than after Peter. I was ready to give you a piece of my mind, but the curse... And when I woke up, I was the grandmother of a very pushy, sarcastic, unhappy teenage waitress.”

Regina wonders where this is going and if she can get out of it, but her only exit is the doorway Granny is standing in.

“I’m not sure what she finds redeeming in you,” Granny adds.

Regina snorts, the sound startling them both. “Neither am I.”

“I’m not sure there’s anything redeeming about you to find,” Granny continues. The older woman sighs heavily. “When she came home, telling me about a woman she met on The Queen’s Road, how the woman hadn’t been afraid of the wolf, I was worried. When I realized the woman she met was _you_ , I was terrified. And when she stood up against Snow in that council meeting and she told the Princess that you were a good woman, a kind, misdirected woman, I was ready to kill her for even thinking it.”

Regina looks back at the prone figure on the bed. “She was a foolish girl.”

“She was a girl in love,” Granny corrects unkindly. “She is a girl still in love.”

“True love doesn’t exist, old woman,” Regina says, squeezing her hand tightly to resist the urge to reach for Red’s, to tangle their fingers together as an anchor to hold her down. “True love-”

“You look around,” Granny interrupts. “You look around and tell me that true love doesn’t exist.” Granny steps forward menacingly. “Snow and Charming have found each other. Emma woke Henry up from a Sleeping Curse that was _your_ doing, by the way. Geppetto has found his son. And when everyone else left you, your Highness, Red went back to get you.” There’s a tense moment of silence before Granny opens her mouth again, her voice hoarse and her words clipped. “You look around and tell me that true love doesn’t exist. If it didn’t, you wouldn’t be here.”

Regina opens her mouth to argue the fact that true love isn’t the reason she’s here, but Granny turns and storms back out of the room.

“She yells when she cares,” Red says softly from the bed, her voice rough. “It’s how I know she loves me.”

Regina snaps into action, dipping a washcloth on the table stand into a pitcher of cool water, dabbing it against Red’s forehead. “That woman loathes me.”

Red gives a smile that doesn’t quite muster a stirring of feelings in Regina. “She hates that I give you the power to hurt me.”

“That is rather foolish of you,” Regina muses.

“Gold said you wouldn’t come get me. He said you abandoned me when you placed the curse on us and that you would leave me in the woods to die,” Red says. Her voice cracks in a way that makes Regina’s heart lurch in her chest.

“And you believed him,” she says offensively, not allowing herself to be hurt by the statement.

Red’s hands cover hers, stopping them as they rub gently at that same line of dried blood. “No, I didn’t. I knew you would come for me.”

Regina pulls away but not quick enough. Red’s smile starts to grow a little, spreading across her face slowly. This is the smile that has Regina’s breath catching in her throat. She clears it, trying to regain some control. “That was rather foolish of you.”

“I’m a foolish girl,” Red admits.

“You are.”

“And I’m still mad that you broke all your promises,” she continues.

“Of course,” Regina dismisses.

“But I am still foolish for _you_.”

Regina swallows heavily. “Yes. Granny mentioned that.” Regina squirms in her seat again. She hates the way that Red stares at her, unblinking and undeterred by the glare Regina manages to give back.

“I had plans. For our life together,” Red admits, breaking the silence again. “Silly plans, I’m sure, thinking back on them. You were a Queen and I was a girl with an affliction. Snow called it puppy love.”

Regina rolls her eyes. “Snow…” but she falls silent at the look Red gives her.

“When the curse broke, they all came rushing back to me, all the plans I had of the things you never gave us the chance to do.” Red pushes herself up slowly until she’s leaning back against the mountain of pillows Henry had collected from the empty rooms in the Bed & Breakfast. Red reaches out and grips the lapel of Regina’s jacket, tugging with all the strength she has until Regina understands the hint and scoots closer. “No, here,” Red clarifies, patting the bed.

Regina raises an eyebrow but complies, sliding gently into the empty space and regretting it instantly when Red wraps her arms around Regina tightly.

“You came back to get me,” Regina muses, as if she’s talking to herself.

Red nods, panting lightly against Regina’s neck. “I might not always find you, but I’ll try my best.”

“Please,” Regina asks, just shy of begging. “Please do not say that to me.”

Red nods slowly. “Do you really think there’s no such thing as true love?” she asks quietly.

Regina can see how important this question is to Red. There’s a wet desperation in her eyes and she’s worrying her lip between her teeth, eyes trained and unblinking as she waits for an answer. Granny’s words echo loudly in her mind and the sensible, rational being in Regina’s head realizes that Granny is right. True love is what allowed Henry to wake up, for Snow to find Charming, for Geppetto to find his boy. Her heart, though, thumps hollowly in her chest and the image of Charming waking Snow from her coffin is replaced by the look of terror and sadness on her father’s face as she took his heart and the squeezed out every last drop of true love.

“I’m trying to believe it does,” she admits quietly.

Red nods. “Okay.”

“Okay?”

Red nods again. “Okay. For now. We have time and you have promises to make up for.”

“I’m trying,” Regina admits again. “For Henry’s sake and for my own sake. And… And for yours. It just won’t happen overnight. I can’t do that.”

Red doesn’t answer her but when she slides back down to rest her head, she pulls Regina down with her, curling into her as soon as she’s settled. “For the record,” Red breathes into Regina’s neck. “I think you are redeemable.”

She is quiet for a moment. Too long, perhaps, because Red opens her mouth to say something before Regina cuts her off. “I think you need to sleep,” she exhales shakily.

Red drops off almost instantly, but Regina remains awake for a long time afterwards, her mind racing.

_I think you are redeemable_.

The way Red said it, Regina can almost believe her.


End file.
